Los Angeles' Historic Highland Park has begun a Keep It Clean Initiative in the neighborhood, to engage the community and businesses in keeping Highland Park beautiful and clean. According to their Facebook page, here's the story: "The City in partnership with community members, organizations, schools, churches and businesses will launch the Highland Park ‘Keep It Clean’ effort to keep Highland Park clean through educating community members to take responsibility and report illegally dumped furniture (bulky items), graffiti, potholes, trash and other items by reporting them on the 311 app. Residents will be assigned as block captain or apartment building captain and host a 311 app training on their block or building to train neighbors on how easy it is to report bulky items and trash. #90042KeepItClean"

The first "Keep It Clean" event in Highland Park was held on Saturday, October 22, 2016 at Monte Vista Elementary School. The event was hosted by hosted by Gil Cedillo of LA CD1, the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council and Chamber of Commerce and other community members. 101 total volunteers showed up at their first clean-up event (how's that for awesome?) and we all put our helping hands together to clean a total of about 20 blocks around the Highland Park neighborhood. From picking up many pieces of trash (I couldn't believe how many cigarettes, chip bags, and soda bottles we found), to using our MyLA 311 apps to report abandoned items on the sidewalks (bbq grills, shopping carts, couches, etc.) and the many sightings of graffiti around the neighborhood. The app was easy to use, and you are able to pinpoint your exact location, upload a picture of what you are reporting, and share any additional details with the City of LA. The app then creates a service call to the city and our reports on Saturday were all expected to be completed for clean up by Tuesday, October 25. How cool is that?! Go City of LA! After 2 hours of trash clean-up in the hot fall sun, I was feeling pretty wiped out. But it was entirely worth it seeing the multiple trash bags FULL of litter that we collected.

Part of being a productive and meaningful member of society here in Los Angeles is giving back to our community, in whichever way you can. It would be disingenuous for me to share how much I love Los Angeles without recognizing that there is much work that needs to be done to make our community a better, safer, and more beautiful place. As I continuously ask myself how I can get more involved and give back to the city that I love so dearly, I urge you to do the same. Feel free to share with me any of your upcoming non-profit events in the community, and I will make it if I can!

For more information on the MyLA 311 app, click here. MyLA311 links Angelenos with the services and information they need to enjoy their city, beautify their community and stay connected with their local government. This is a great resource for all LA residents to report trash, large and abandoned items on the side of the street, graffiti, potholes, and illegal activity anywhere in Los Angeles.

For more clean up events or volunteer opportunities in Los Angeles, visit the following links.

Regardless of whether or not you're able to attend a local clean up in your LA neighborhood, let's try to keep all of L.A. beautiful (and clean), folks! Pick up after yourself, collect any trash on the sidewalk if you see it, and use your My LA 311 app on your smartphone to help keep our community clean.

Leave a Reply.

@jorda_b

COMMUNITY BUILDING

If you hadn't already noticed, I love the City of Angeles. More than anything, I want this city - and the people in it - to thrive. My goal is to continue finding ways to serve and better our community, and I'll share some of my efforts in this space.

*Please note that this page does not nearly cover the ways in which I aim to help our community - either by donating, educating myself on important issues, calling legislators, volunteering, and more. We all have a part to play in making the world a better place.

​If you would like any free press for your L.A. non-profit or charitable event, please contact me at:jordan_blogger@yahoo.com for me to include this information on my blog and e-newsletters.